In emotional dirty work, little is known about how emotion caregivers construe meaning out of burdensome emotional demands mandated by their occupation. This study examines how “emotion caregivers” experience ambivalence while cleaning their beneficiaries’ emotional dirt and yet make sense out of it to build positive occupational identity. It demonstrates that “emotion caregivers” perform intense emotional labor on their day-to-day work by embracing rather than discarding unwelcome emotions of the care seekers. Undertaking a qualitative inquiry through self-narratives of 21 counselors, we report their ambivalence toward the work and how such ambivalence is managed through “cognitive,” “emotional,” and “collective” levels of sensemaking. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed to highlight how psychological and sociological perspectives of sensemaking help “emotion caregivers” diffuse ambivalence.
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